


There's Nothing Wrong with Being Scared

by spac3bar7end3r



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Awkward Stiles Stilinski, M/M, Paranorman AU, Stiles can see ghost, Werewolf Derek
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-01-31 02:57:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12666852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spac3bar7end3r/pseuds/spac3bar7end3r
Summary: “Er, no.” Stiles glanced at his dad and his brother hesitatingly. He decided to look at his pancake, mumbling quietly, “Mom told me.”Stuart rolled his eyes, putting his phone down. “Stop saying things like that.”“Like what?” Stiles asked, knowing totally what Stuart meant to say.“Like mom says this or mom says that! She’s dead!”----------It started as a Paranorman AU but now it's not.So this is an AU where Stiles can see dead people





	1. I wasn't prepared to be a scared young boy

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in 2015 so I may or may not forget how the story is going to end  
> The name of the fic comes from Paranorman when Grandma told Norman.  
> Chapters' name come from the song Ken Ashcorp - Supernatural

 

 

Today was a normal day.

Stiles wanted to be normal.

Stiles’ bedroom is full of normal--typical teenager stuffs. Posters of movies and bands he likes, books scattering around his desk and the bedroom floor. He didn’t want someone to see his room and thought, ‘Oh this is what the Freak’s room looks like.’ So yes, it was what normal healthy boy’s bedroom should look like. He wanted to be normal.

But this was not the story about how Stiles became normal. He was the Freak after all. This, was the story about how coming to term with being a freak.

So...Maybe you can call it his Bildungsroman.

“What are you doing, kiddo?” Stiles heard a woman’s voice behind his back. He spinned his chair, grinning when he saw his mom sitting on his bed.

“Morning, mom. Had great fun last night?” Stiles asked, packing his backpack before he stood up.

“Yup,” Claudia said, popping the p sound, the habit Stiles took after her. “Did you know Mr.Deaton had an evening garden? I saw him getting outside of his house watching flowers in his backyard when I was talking with Mrs.Boyd.”

“An evening garden? I didn’t know that. Not that I want to know his hobby, mom. Well, I gotta go. I’m going to be late.”

“Oh, Stiles. Tell John he forgot to turn off the light in the basement again,” His mom said while she was flo--walking around his room like she always did, casually looking at posters Stiles hung on the wall.

“Okay.Bye, mom.”

“Bye. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Stiles shut his bedroom door. Stuart was also shutting his bedroom’s door. His bedroom was in front of Stiles’ room, so now they were looking at each other. Stuart raised his eyebrows then grunted softly.

“Morning,” Stiles said, waiting for Stuart to walk down the stairs then went after him.

They went to the kitchen where their dad was making breakfast. “Morning, kids,” His dad said when he noticed them. Stiles and Stuart greeted back then walked to the table.

“Listen to me, you boys should behave tonight. There’s a case I have to look at. Don’t go to the preserve.”

“Why? does this case has something to do with the preserve?” Stuart asked.

“Hmm, you don’t have to worry about it. It’s my job.”

“What happened at the preserve?” Stiles asked. His dad grunted softly but said nothing then Stuart said,

“There, found it, A murder at the preserve? Dad? What happened?” Stuart asked again, waving his phone, the screen showing the headline about the incident.

“I said it’s my job, kid. I mean it. This is not like Heather’s case.” His dad sighed then left it at that. Stuart and Stiles stopped asking question and sat quietly.

“Right, dad, you forgot to turn off the light in the basement,” Stiles said nonchalantly, waiting for a plate of pancakes to land in front of him. Stuart looked up briefly before went back glancing at his phone. He was phone-addicted. He always talked with someone all the time.

“Yeah? Thanks, Stiles. Maybe I forgot to turn it off after I went down to grab something. You already turn it off, right? What were you doing in the basement anyway?” John set Stuart’s plate on the table then set his own next to Stiles and sat.

“Er, no.” Stiles glanced at his dad and his brother hesitatingly. He decided to look at his pancake, mumbling quietly, “Mom told me.”

Stuart rolled his eyes, putting his phone down. “Stop saying things like that.”

“Like what?” Stiles asked, knowing totally what Stuart meant to say.

“Like mom says this or mom says that! She’s dead!”

John Stilinski looked at his boys, sighing. He looked at Stiles, shaking his head slowly.

 

Today was a normal day. Like usual.

Stiles wanted to be normal.

\-----------------------------

 

Stiles went inside his jeep, throwing his backpack to make it land on the passenger’s seat with a thump sound.

“Drive safe,” John said, locking the door before he walked to his cruiser.

“You too, dad.” Stiles closed the door. He looked at his bedroom’s window on the second floor and saw his mom smiling softly and waving her hand at him. Stiles smiled bitterly when he caught his sibling’s reflection on the rearview mirror.

Stuart didn’t go to school with Stiles. Jackson had been the one to pick him up for 2 years now. Before they could drive Stuart decided one day that he would not wake Stiles up and went to school on his own. They didn’t talk about it. Stiles always made sure Stuart already went to school then he went after him a bit later. Stuart didn’t want to be seen with him. Having same face as Stiles might be bad enough. Face of the Freak.

Stiles parked his jeep when he reached school parking lot. It rumbled for a minute then stopped. Stiles got out of the car, patting at the door. It was old and it looked like many people had driven it before Stiles but it was the only used car that did not have ‘someone’ inside.

“Stiles!” Scott shouted loudly even though he parked his bike beside Stiles. He was grinning widely.

“Morning.” Stiles grumbled, holding his backpack. Scott walked beside him.

“What’s wrong, dude? you look grumpy than usual.”

“Just...like usual. I blurted out about my mom again and Stuart got mad. Dad was disappointed. Like usual.”

“Woah come on. It’s not that bad. Stuart’s always being butthurt anyway. Brothers always do that. It’s like their job. Look at Derek!”

“Your brother is fine. At least he didn’t have a freak as a brother.”

“You are not a freak, Stiles! It’s just...you are different. I guess.” Scott shrugged, “And even if you are, I don’t care, man. We are cool.”

“Yeah, thanks man,” Stiles said, walking to his own locker.

Stiles’ locker was normal like the other kid’s, a plain gray locker with a lock. Except Stiles’ was written with words that associated with ‘Freak’ with a black marker. Someone next to him snickered at those words then went away. Stiles sighed, bringing cleaning kit from his locker. He tried to wipe these words several times, but it kept coming and it was hard to erase. If it wasn’t the teachers always bugging him about dirty locker, he would stop trying to erase it. It was tiring.

“Let’s go. Don’t care about it, Stiles. There’ll always be these kind of guys. You just have to let it go.”

“Yeah.” Stiles shrugged. He walked with Scott until Scott went inside his class. They had different class in morning. Stiles had English with Stuart and _Lydia_.

Lydia was sitting next to Stuart, talking and laughing with him. Stiles used to has a crush on her but not anymore. Having friends was already hard enough, so having a girlfriend or a boyfriend was obviously not a choice.

Stuart ignored Stiles (like usual). Stiles sat at the back of the class next to row of windows. Anna was standing outside the window, looking at him.

“How was your weekend?”

“Fine. _Normal_.” Stiles mumbled his answer quietly.

Anna stretched lazily. She looked at the sky for a moment then turned her head to Stiles. “I think you are using the word ‘normal’ so much that it’s not normal anymore,” She said. Stiles shrugged.

“You have a class with Mr.Yukimura later, right? I think he’s weird.”

Stiles smirked, writing on his notebook so someone didn’t catch him talking with himself.

_No one is weirder than me._

Anna walked through the windows and stood next to Stiles’ table. She peered at Stiles’ notebook then said, “Hah! Don’t be so full of yourself, dude.”

Stiles frowned. _Weird is not a compliment._

“Oh it is. If you want. Screw those who think it’s not.”

_You saw what they wrote on my locker, right? I’m weird. I’m a freak._

“Yes, I did see that but no, you are not a freak, okay? Stop saying that!”

 _I didn’t say, I write._ Stiles wrote and smiled.

Anna rolled her eyes then walked through the windows to somewhere again, so he looked up, trying to listen to his teacher. He noticed Stuart was looking at him, so he raised his eyebrows at him. Stuart looked the other way.

 

Stiles sat at his lunch table with Scott today. Sometimes Scott used to sit with Stuart and his friends because of lacrosse stuff but when he broke up with Allison he came back. Stiles didn’t mind sitting alone.

In fact, he wasn’t alone. Sometimes Anna sat with him, sometimes the others were sitting with him too. And by the others he meant Jason, Heather and Matt.

Jason used to be a cool kid. He played basketball in a golden age of Beacon Hill High basketball team but he was in a car accident 3 years ago. His appearance was a lot like Jackson and the lacrosse team. A jock, wearing a letterman jacket, jeans and sneakers. He used to be in a douchebag phrase when Stiles first met him in a canteen but now he was an okay guy (obviously the reason was because he had no one to talk to except Stiles).

Heather though, she was Stiles’ friend before Scott came. She died 4 months ago and she was murdered, so she was kind of depressed. Sometimes she cried. Stiles helped her catching the murderer by dropping hints to his dad didn’t help. Stiles thought at first that if he helped her catch the murderer would help her go but she was still here, sitting with him wearing her pink pajamas in a canteen. The first time Stiles met her, she was at his house crying her eyes out and apologized for several times.

‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said you saw spirits. Now I’m dead and I don’t know where to go.’

Matt was a creepy kid who died by drowning in a school swimming pool last year, so all he wore was swimming suits. Stiles didn’t like him much but he could do nothing about it.

“Honestly, if I were you guys I wouldn’t come to school at all. It was boring,” Stiles said when Scott was going to restroom.

“That’s because I don’t have a house anymore, stupid,” Jason said. he was a laidback guy now that he didn’t care about him being dead anymore but Heather grimaced then spoke softly, “I wanted to go home, but then I looked at it and I feel terrible.”

“Sorry. At least you are not Matt. Look at him wearing swimsuits in a canteen.” Stiles shrugged. Heather smiled a little.

Scott came back from a canteen, smiling at Stiles. “Dude, Kira smiled at me. She’s so cute!”

“Again with Scott and his crush on that asian girl.” Jason rolled his eyes, standing up from a table and walked away.

“Oh right, speak of Kira, she was Mr.Yukimura’s daughter, right? These two are weird,” Anna said, looking at Scott eating his lunch.

“We are weirder than them. We are ghost.”

“Nah, they are weird. Last week I saw him told her that be careful with the light bulbs. Why?”

“Maybe they were planning to change their light bulbs at home,” Matt said monotonously. Anna rolled her eyes. “Argh! You are so boring! If Stiles can speak right now he will tell how boring you are.”

Stiles rolled his eyes at that, typing his phone and secretly show the text at Anna. _She’s right, dude._ Anna laughed so hard she almost fell from the chair.

“Why don’t you ask her out?” Stiles asked Scott who almost finished his lunch now.

“Yeah, about that, I’m trying to. I’m waiting for the right time.”

“You’ll have to wait forever,” Matt said, smirking at Scott.

“Hey!”

“What?” Scott asked Stiles after Stiles suddenly shout at nothing because he didn’t hear what Matt said. Stiles shrugged.

“Err, nothing. I just remember I was going to ask you if you are free today.”

“Oh okay. Yeah, Wanna hang out at my house? My mom works late today.”

“Okay.” Stiles nodded and went back to his lunch.

 

Stiles and Scott were watching Wolverine in a living room when Derek came home.

“Seriously, Scott? Wolverine?” Derek walked into the room and snatched snack from Scott’s hands.

“Hey! yeah, got a problem with that?” Scott wriggled his eyebrows. Derek sighed before he noticed Stiles.

“Hi Stiles.”

“Hi Derek.” Stiles smiled at Derek then turned his head back at the movie. Derek went up to his room then came back to watch movie together. He sat on the right side of Scott and Stiles was sitting at Scott’s left side.

They talked randomly about weather, movies, books for an hour before Stiles decided to go home.

“Hey, I have to go home, it’s my turn to make dinner,” Stiles said while trying to put all of his stuffs in his backpack.

“Tell Stuart I said hi,” Derek said, looking at Stiles.

“Oh, I will.” Stiles lied, looking back at Derek. Derek raised his eyebrows but said nothing, so Stiles stood up, said goodbye to both of them and got out of Scott’s house.

 

It wasn’t until midnight that Stiles realized he forgot his English lit notebook, the one he always used to talk with spirits at Scott’s house.

“Fuck.”


	2. Finding Things I Shouldn’t Find

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You came here alone?”
> 
> “Yes.” Stiles lied easily, because it’s not like Derek would believe him anyway if Stiles told him he came here with mom.

 

Stiles never had a great memory of someone reading his notebook. Jackson used to do that in fourth grade when he pulled Stiles’ notebook from his hand. Stiles was writing on it to talk to Mrs.Pitcher, an old lady who taught English, who died from a heart attack. It was the best way to communicate when he was in class because the others always looked weirdly at him when he was speaking out loud.

“What this?” Jackson said loudly, waving Stiles’ notebook. “Hello? Who are you? I can’t spell your name? How did you die? What is this, Stiles?”

Everyone knew Stiles always claimed that he spoke to the death but Stiles still didn’t like it when someone mocked him. He knew he was different but still, it hurt.

Scott was not here yet when the Stiles’ Notebook incident happened, so maybe that was why he was still friend with Stiles. One year later, Scott moved to Beacon Hills with his mother and Derek. Scott said his father was a jerk. Derek was Scott’s adoptive brother who was one year older than them. Scott knew about Stiles saying he can see ghost but he didn’t say anything about it but if he saw Stiles’ English notebook he might change his mind or tell Derek how weird Stiles was.

After dinner and doing his homework, Stiles sneaked out of his house and went to the preserve, forgetting about his father’s warning this morning.

It’s full moon tonight, so the sky was not that dark. Stiles drove his jeep hoping no one noticed him especially the deputies. Every deputies knew Stiles since he was young and Stiles was always meddling with their cases, like Heather’s.

“Sooo, where are you going, hun?”

“Mom!” Stiles jumped in his seat, looking at his mom who suddenly popped out of nowhere grinning on a passenger's seat. “Don’t surprise me like that!”

“Sorry,” Claudia winced, chuckling. “Anyway, where are you going?”

“The preserve.”

Claudia nodded. She knew Stiles always went to the preserve. He liked the silence there and the wood’s scent. He always felt cramped in the town, walking around with people and spirits even though some of them were friendly (mostly the spirits).

“Hey, maybe you can pass Mr.Deaton’s house to see his evening garden.” Claudia grinned mischievously at Stiles.

Stiles smiled then said, “Okay. I’ve got nothing to do anyway.” _except crying uglily in the preserve about his forgotten notebook._

 

Mr.Deaton’s tiny blue house was located near the preserve. The color blue was still clear even though the sky was dark.

“Where is his evening garden?”

“In his backyard. Shhh, I think I see someone. Let me check,” Claudia whispered then her figure slowly disappeared.

The thing about spirits was at first it was hard to tell who was spirit or who was not because their appearance was almost like normal human beings, no blood, no funny face, no transparent body.

However when you looked carefully you would notice that they were not human. He couldn’t describe it into words but it was like human tended to go anywhere all the time but with spirit, they didn’t have anywhere else to go. Stiles realized after living with the vision for so long that those who lingered around are the ones who died suddenly or in a bad way like Jason, Heather or Matt. Spirits could go anywhere but they did it slowly, in a no-rush way and they liked to disappear or appear out of nowhere. Sometimes they floated, sometimes though, they liked to  walk like human.

“Hey,” His mom was back, suddenly on a passenger's seat again. “Mr.Deaton was talking with Derek in his living room.”

“Derek? Derek Mccall? Scott’s brother?” _What is he doing here?_ Stiles thought.

“Yes, Mr.Deaton is lecturing him about something, so the backyard is clear. Let’s check it out!”

“Why are you so enthusiastic about his garden, mom?”

“Well, because it’s an evening garden! A garden needs to be gardening in the evening!”

“Oh I didn’t realize that what evening garden means.” Stiles deadpanned. Claudia sighed.

“If I could still touch you I would flick your little nose right now, but there’s something more important for us to do, kid! We’re gonna sneak a peek at his backyard.” Claudia giggled happily. Stiles shook his head, turning off the engine of the jeep and got out.

“It’s easy for you to do that. You don’t even need to sneak because no one can see you.”

“But it’s more exciting for you because everyone can see you” Claudia sang, walking ahead of Stiles.

Even though Stiles acted like he annoyed but even himself knew that it was all an act; he liked his mother and always cherished the time he spending with her both when she was alive and after that. It was one good thing about the vision.

The house was a little bit far from other’s people’s house. Stiles was envious of him. He got tired of his neighbor judging him. The house didn’t have any fences, just a house stood on a huge land. Stiles had to walk a minute from the road before he reached the house. The backyard was almost connected to the preserve.

Stiles didn’t have a chance to walk to the backyard yet when the front door opened and Derek came out. Stiles quickly hid behind a dark spot.

“Stiles?” Derek walked to where Stiles hid without hesitant.

“Woah dude, how do you know I’m here?” Stiles asked. Derek just shrugged, looking around.

“You came here alone?”

“Yes.” Stiles lied easily, because it’s not like Derek would believe him anyway if Stiles told him he came here with mom.

It was dark, so Stiles did not see Derek clearly but he assumed Derek raised his eyebrows quizzically at Stiles because Derek always did that.

“What are you doing here, Stiles?” Derek crossed his arms and looked at Stiles. Stiles thought for a moment then fuck it, everyone thought he was a freak anyway, so he said,

“I heard Mr.Deaton has an evening garden. I just want to see.”

Derek looked like he didn’t know what to say, but before he said anything Mr.Deaton walked out of the door.

“Stiles, I thought you were going to come sooner.”

“What?” Stiles looked at him weirdly, why would he come here?

“Nothing. Since you said you wanted to see my garden, so come inside then.” Mr.Deaton opened the door for Stiles. Stiles turned to looked at his mother who just ushered him to go inside.

_Yeah, it’s not like you could get murdered in a stranger’s house since you are already dead._

Stiles rolled his eyes. Derek just stared at him but Stiles ignored the guy. He was used to ignore people looked at him strangely so this was easy.

Stiles looked around When he entered the house. Mr.Deaton seemed like a pretty weird guy and his house was also super weird with herbs and its smell around the room, some exotic decorations. Did people really own that kind of candle holder? Anyway...he was still being respected around the community since he was the only local vet, so Stiles also planned to be like him; be smart enough that people ignored the fact that you are a freak.

“So what are you doing here?” Stiles asked Derek who just followed him without saying anything.

“Talk.”

“With him?” Stiles pointed at Mr.Deaton and tilted his head.

“Yes.”

“About?”

“Not your business,” Derek said without adding anything more.

“Okay, cool.” Stiles was used to people dissed him like that so he didn’t talk back but followed Mr.Deaton instead.

“Mr.Deaton, I--”

“Call me Deaton,” Deaton said, gesturing Stiles to follow him to the opened back door which his mother just walked through nonchalantly. Stiles tried not to roll his eyes.

“By the way,” Stiles said, looking back at Derek who was standing behind, nostrils flaring and looking confused as fuck but whatever, Stiles continued, “I, uh, forgot my notebook at Scott’s house.”

“And why are you telling me that?”

“I don’t know, dude, can’t you just bring it back for me tomorrow and not look what’s inside?”

“Sure.” Derek nodded as if it was easy just like that. If only everything in Stiles’ life was like this…

Derek was looking at some weird artifact inside the living room so Stiles just decided to followed Deaton and his mother to the backyard.

 

The evening garden was incredibly beautiful and...impossible. Stiles saw some flowers glowing, which was totally weird even by his standard. His mother just tried to smell the strong fragrance of flowers at the end of the backyard even though Stiles knew she could not smell it.

“Hey, there’re some flowers falling on the ground over here, are you sure it’s alright?” Stiles picked at some kind of flower that he didn’t know its name. Its dark purple petals are so fascinating. However, they look too fresh to fall on the ground like that.

“Hmmm.” Deaton just hummed in his throat, saying nothing. He picked the flower and examined it closely. “So just like Derek said…”

“What are you talking about?” As if Derek heard Deaton mentioning his name, he opened the door and walked directly to where they were but Deaton held one hand out, trying to stop him.

“Don’t come here, Derek. It’s--”

Before Deaton finished his sentence, Derek almost reached where Deaton and Stiles were but he suddenly stopped, sneezing loudly.

“--wolfsbane.”

 

When Derek raised his head, his eyebrows were gone and his facial structure changed; glowing golden eyes, sharp fangs, pointy ears. Derek shook his head for a moment then suddenly he looked at Stiles like a deer in the headlights.

“Oops.” Claudia Stilinski looked at the scene then looked at Derek even though he could not see her, “Bless you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, commenting and kudos! I really appreciated that.


End file.
